Intel Demonstrates WiTricity Technology that transfer Energy on the air during IDF 2008

We have talked about the WiTricity techonology when it was last demonstrated by a team of MIT researchers last year. Now there seem to be a similar technology being showcased by Intel during the recent IDF held in San Francisco. Witricity is a new technology breakthrough that is capable to transfer energy wirelessly based on magnetically coupled resonance and eventually power up portable devices on the air.

During the event, two large coils were used for the demonstration on the stage. The first coil was oscillating and generating magnetic field that will transfer energy to the second coil which eventually powering up a 60 Watt light bulb continuously. The only difference here, Intel has put in extra effort to improve the performance efficiency from previous 45% to up to 75%, making it more practical to be implemented in real life usage. Since a 60 Watt bulb requires more power than any current that is drawn by laptop usage, it doesn’t seem to be an issue to power up a laptop except some proper power management design is needed to handle those 25% wastage as heat dissipation.

According to Smith, an Intel researcher, there is a plan to work on transmission prototype that can be used to power up laptop wirelessly in the short future. No doubt, this is the right move that could eliminate charger and potentially remove bulky battery as well to make the end product even smaller and lighter to be carried around. More importantly, it is said that the wireless power transfer technology is totally safe since it uses magnetic field instead of electric field.